Eight nurses who spoke up about the use of single-sex changing rooms by a trans colleague were unlawfully harassed, an employment tribunal in Newcastle has found.
The judge said the nurses were left working in an environment that was hostile, intimidating and degrading.
The tribunal stressed that the conduct of Rose Henderson, a trans woman, was not itself unlawful.
It ruled that County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust was responsible for harassment after allowing access to a female changing room without offering a viable alternative for staff who objected.
Judges found the nurses’ concerns were dismissed, with the trust suggesting the claimants needed “to be educated on trans rights”, conduct which the panel said violated their dignity and created a hostile and degrading working environment.
The eight nurses claimed they faced indirect discrimination, harassment and victimisation due to Darlington and Country Durham NHS Trust’s policies on trans staff.
Simon Cheetham KC, representing the NHS trust, said staff were only given access to single-sex spaces if they “declared they were living their life fully in that gender”.
He argued that was a “higher threshold” than what was being claimed by the nurses.
Nurses from Darlington Memorial Hospital took their trust to an employment tribunal hearing over a trans colleague’s use of changing rooms at work
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PAThe changing room at Darlington Memorial Hospital was used by Rose Henderson, an operating department practitioner and a biological male who identifies as a woman.
Rose was referred to by first name at the tribunal and uses female pronouns.
In a judgment handed down to the parties on Friday, Employment Judge Seamus Sweeney said: “The trust subjected the claimants to harassment related to sex and gender reassignment by permitting the claimants’ biological male, trans woman colleague to use the female changing room and requiring the claimants to share that changing room without providing suitable alternative facilities.”
The ruling said the trust also subjected the nurses to harassment by not taking their concerns seriously and: “This included referring to the need for the claimants to be educated on trans rights and to broaden their mindsets, the later provision of inadequate and unsuitable changing facilities for those who objected to sharing the female changing room with that colleague.”
The Darlington Nurses told GB News about their ‘traumatic ordeal’ with a biologically male patient in November – you can watch the interview above
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GB NEWSJudge Sweeney said: “The above conduct had the effect of violating the dignity of the claimants and creating a hostile, intimidating, humiliating and degrading environment for them.”
The tribunal hearings in Newcastle last year heard evidence from the nurses, the trust and Rose before the panel adjourned the proceedings in November to consider its findings.
Darlington nurse Bethany Hutchison led the claim against County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust over its policy of allowing a transgender colleague to use female changing rooms.
After the tribunal judgment in Newcastle, she said: “This is a victory for common sense and for every woman who simply wants to feel safe at work.”